Liezl Croft is an utterly lovely wedding and family portrait photographer. A force of South African fabulousness, creative, warm, friendly and with an eye for fun she asked us to create a brand refresh and blogsite that would reflect where her business is today as well as (of course) attracting and retaining lots of new clients.

And whilst we’ve been working with her on her printed literature now for several years, I was delighted when she asked us to give her blog a brandover. Having set up her business less than two years ago, Liezl had previously created her websites herself and felt that her business was at a level where she was ready to step things up a gear.

As well as being a cracking lifestyle photographer, Liezl is also very crafty and I think you’ll see that come through in the look and feel of the site.

We’ve worked on creating direct mail for Liezl in the past (which we won a design award last year for) but this project gave us the chance to really flex our creative muscles! We designed to create Liezl a WordPress based blogsite – a website and blog rolled into one which would give her the chance to showcase her photography without being too onerous to manage.

We put together a colour palette that created an aspirational feel, whilst plenty of texture and elements like the bunting creates a sensory quality and follows on from the work we did previously on the mailers. We all love the icons that Chloe created for each category, and the beautiful pattern that sets off the blog. I’d always known that Liezl’s work was beautiful, but what I hadn’t appreciated was the enormous difference the right surroundings make to her images.

If you take a look at the difference between the old blog and the new, I think you’ll agree they’re night and day apart.

Liezl’s old blog

I don’t want to embarrass anyone by going into this too heavily, let’s just say that the design of the blog had a long way to catch up with the quality of Liezl’s work…

And the new blogsite

Liezl has been so much fun to work with on this project and we wish her lots of luck with the new site and branding. It’s too early to measure the financial success of the blog – it’s been live for less than a month, but visits have doubled and the feedback to Liezl’s Facebook and Twitter page was overwhelming! Do hope on over and take a look (and do leave her a comment too, it’s so lovely to receive feedback when you’re writing your heart out and you know how lonely it can be when you’re first blogging)… You’ll find Liezl’s website and blog at www.liezlcroft.com

Tagged as in Blogging, Case Studies, From The Studio, Web Design, Websites

I’m often asked where we find our inspiration for our own brand and the brands we work on. The people that ask have clearly never seen our creative boardroom! At the heart of the room is a bright (flourish) green painted sideboard packed with magazines, catalogues and direct mail to inspire us.

We are also adept at using online resources: Pinterest, google images, design blogs and work from other agencies.

As well as using these resources for a bit of focused and structured inspiration, it’s also about having our eyes open at all times, because you literally never know where inspiration will strike. Packaging in a supermarket or department store, an old property, travel abroad or something as simple as the colours in nature. All of these elements have the power to inspire, it’s just about how you interpret them.

So how can you find inspiration for your own brand?

Start with your home. Most (not all) of the small business owners we work with run a business that taps into their passions; a business that is in some way a reflection of them.

If that’s the case for you, root through your wardrobe, your favourite items in your kitchen or the things that influence you in interior design. Is there a common theme?

Look at the magazines you have in your home and start to dissect them. What do you love about them? Is there anything that you can take inspiration from? Layout, treatments, typography etc.

Visit exhibitions and take inspiration from how other businesses brand themselves. Start to build up a mood board to help you articulate what you’re after.

Once you have a scrapbook or mood board of how you’d like everything to look and feel, you’re in a great position to talk to a branding company or graphic designer and they will be able to interpret this into something unique and very special

Images: All sourced via Pinterest

Tagged as in Branding, Powerful Branding

Sunny day, clear skies and fire in my belly. What’s not to be optimistic about?

What plans do you have for your business this year?

What would you be doing if nothing was standing in your way?

It’s something to think about isn’t it?

Image Credits: The Best is Yet to Come print Etsy, Kate Spade flats via Style Me Pretty, Neon Notebook, Vee, Sour Cherry Soup via Luxe Finds, Sparkly Clothes via The Collectione, Neon Flowers Sania Pell, Sparkle Quote ZsaZsa Bellagio, Ocean Quote, 

Tagged as in Inspirations

Would you like a sneak preview of the Branding Masterclass branding? Oh go on then… With less than two weeks to go until the launch of the fabulous online Branding Masterclass the team in the studio are working incredibly hard dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s on the brand identity and blogsite. You can [...]

Tagged as in Branding, Case Studies, Flourish Stuff, From The Studio, The Flourish Identity, Workshops

I love this quote, don’t you? ‘Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass it is about learning to dance in the rain’ I love it because it continues to remind me that whatever is going on beyond our control, we have the capacity to be able to choose our own destiny. None of [...]

Tagged as in Big Thinking, Branding, Inspirations

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve shared with you some of the brands that I love, and the reasons why. We’ve also looked at some of the learnings you can take into your own business and I hope that I’ve started to inspire you about how you can make your brand more engaging, more [...]

Tagged as , jasmine star in Branding, Graphic Design, Logo Design, Powerful Branding

On Monday I did something I’ve been meaning to do for *years*. I headed up to Top Drawer for a spot of inspiration, research and to catch up with some old and new friends. To be honest I didn’t really know what to expect, but having enviously listened to various people talking about the sheer [...]

Tagged as in Exhibitions

Shameless plug alert! We have some wonderful business owners signed up to join me on 6th Feb for the Branding Masterclass but as the Early Bird Offer ends on Sunday I thought I’d give you a quick reminder of the reasons you need to book your place if you haven’t already: Staying ahead of the [...]

Tagged as in Branding, Flourish Stuff, Powerful Branding, Workshops

If you’ve been following the news recently major websites such as Wikipedia and WordPress.org are running a 24 hour blackout today in response to the two bills SOPA and PIPA that are making their way through congress. I won’t go over the full details here. A search for “SOPA Blackout”, “WordPress Blackout” etc should suffice [...]

Tagged as in Online Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, web development, Websites

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you probably can’t fail to have noticed the meteoric rise to fame of Jasmine Star, Californian photographer for “fabulous people”. Jasmine’s story is a great example of how talent matters, but not nearly as much as powerful marketing. I’m always completely wowed by Jasmine’s website: high energy, high [...]

Tagged as , jasmine star in Branding, Powerful Branding